Digital Workflow
Digital cameras are the single most significant improvement in
photography since automatic focusing was introduced in the 1980s. But
this improvement has come at a cost to those of us who have embraced the
digital age, the need for even rank amateurs to have some form of workflow
to get the pictures from the camera, to the computer or printer.
For many, the workflow consists only of using the manufacturer provided
utilities to move the images from the camera to the computer, and make
some minor automatic level adjustments.
But for those of us who chose this hobby as a means of gaining more
control of the development process, the digital workflow frees us from
having to deal with chemicals and a darkroom. All we need today is a
computer, some software, and optionally a printer.
For software the handsdown favorite is
Adobe Photoshop,
either Elements or CS. But others like
Paintshop
Pro by Corel (formerly owned by JASC),
ACDSee by
ACD Systems and Unix/Linux users (also available for Windows and Macintosh
users) often use
Gimp a GNU product.
The digital workflow starts when we copy the images from our camera to our
computer. Having a process makes this task less tedious and helps us to
find those elusive photographs later. This task can be accomplished using
a variety of methods including File Manager (or My Computer) or a utility
that was purpose-built for our camera using a serial or USB cable. Most
higher-end cameras support removable media for the images, which allows us
to get the pictures off of the camera without using the camera's
batteries.
Once the images are off of the camera, they need to be converted to a
standard format (if they are not already). There are many thesis on the
web concerning whether
Camera Raw or
JPEG processing produces a higher quality image. We had independently
arrived at the same conclusion that the author did, and blindly convert
our raw images to JPEG for ease of viewing. If an individual image merits
significant post processing, then we will go back to the raw version and
perform the more lengthy raw processing.
After converting the image to an 8-bit format (commonly JPEG) we can go
through a standard process of adjusting first the shadows and highlights,
then the contrast and brightness (the use of curves is preferrable if
available), followed by level adjustment and then hue and saturation.
The entire process should be concluded by sharpening using the unsharp
mask.
For those of you who are impatient, or uncomfortable with all of this hand
processing, Adobe Photoshop provides a tool called the Auto Smart Fix that
does an admirable job of performing each of these functions
automatically. In many situations, the output of the Auto Smart Fix is
good enough for most of us.
This is where many of us feel that we are complete with our workflow, but
there is one more step that is frequently ignored, and usually to our
later regret. That is moving the images from the computer onto some form
of removable media. DVD or CD is often the best medium to use for this
vital task, but a removable hard disk can also be employed. At Lorelei
Studios we generally use both DVD and removable hard disk to protect these
vital resources.
Now that you understand a rudimentary digital workflow, get out there and
put it to work. Over time we believe that you will find that having a
process in place for processing your photographs will enhance your
enjoyment of the sometimes tedious post processing aspect of digital
cameras.
© 2006 Lorelei Studios
All rights reserved
Updated: Sun 24 Aug, 2008
